FORT MYERS, Fla. - The Suncoast Credit Union FGCU Athletics Scholar-Athletes of the Month for October have been announced with Magnus Johnson (Naples, Fla./Homeschool/UCF) of men's tennis and Cortney VanLiew (Seymour, Ind./Columbus East HS) of volleyball earning the honor. Johnson had a strong start to the fall campaign, while VanLiew led the volleyball team with a big month as well that help set-up its run to the ASUN Championship title.
 
A female and male Eagle are chosen as the Papa John's FGCU Athletics Scholar-Athlete of the Month throughout the academic year. Factors in the selection for the honor include a combination of significant athletic and overall success. Alyssa Abbondandolo of women's soccer and Austin Cherichella of men's golf earned the distinction for the month of September.
 
Johnson finished the fall campaign with a 4-2 record in singles play and was 2-2 in doubles action. Ranked 69^th nationally, he began the year with a win at the prestigious ITA All-American Championships defeating Alex Brown of defending Big Ten champion Illinois. At the Bedford Cup, Johnson picked up two more wins as well as the Sportsmanship Award before concluding the fall season with two singles wins and a doubles victory at the Bonita Bay Classic over players from top-50 programs Dartmouth and Notre Dame. Last spring, he was named the ASUN Co-Player of the Year and the Freshman of the Year prior to playing as an individual in the NCAA Tournament. He finished the spring season ranked No. 99 in the country as the Eagles earned a program-record ranking at 65^th overall.
 
He completed the 2020-21 year with a perfect 4.0 cumulative GPA and is a management major. In his first two semesters at FGCU, he's landed on the Presidents List and AD Honor Roll twice and was a member of the ASUN Honor Roll. He also finished last season as a member of the ITA Scholar-Athlete.
 
"Magnus is the epitome of what a coach looks for in a college student athlete. Not only does he perform exceptionally well on the court, but he is very studious, he's a very nice teammate who gets along with everybody on the team, and he is very community focused as he's involved with many different volunteer projects around the Naples area," said head coach CJ Weber. "I'm looking forward to this coming spring season for him and the rest of the guys on the team!"
 
VanLiew led the Eagles to a 10-0 record in October as part of their 14-match win streak to start ASUN play. She posted the second-most kills on the team with 76 while adding 71 digs and nine service aces. To start the month, she became the third player in program history to record 1,000 career kills and 1,000 career digs. She also was announced, alongside teammate Dana Axner, as one of the top 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award. She posted double-figure kills three times in the month including a high of 13 in a five-set win at North Florida as part of a double-double with 10 digs. She followed that with a 10 kills, 15 dig performance against Kennesaw State.

A graduate student this year, VanLiew received her undergraduate degree in accounting with a minor in Spanish this past spring 2021 and has commenced working on her master's degree in business administration. She returned for the 2021-22 campaign to utilize the extra year of eligibility due to the COVID pandemic. She has compiled a 3.678 cumulative GPA for her undergraduate career and has been a President's List selection, a Dean's List selection, an AD's Honor Roll selection, and a member of the ASUN Honor Roll. She is the program's first two-time CoSIDA All-Academic Team selection and is just the second three-time ASUN All-Academic honoree in program history. To highlight her undergraduate career, she was inducted into the FGCU Hall of Fame as announced this past spring.
 
"Cortney has spent the last month competing in the heart of our playing schedule while balancing the academic challenges that pile up as a semester comes toward a close," said head coach Matt Botsford. "To do so at the level she has, and does, is remarkable. Happy to see her recognized as scholar athlete of the month for those efforts."
 
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FGCU teams have combined to win an incredible 86 conference regular season and tournament titles in just 14+ seasons at the Division I level. Additionally, in just nine seasons of D-I postseason eligibility, the Eagles have had a combined 42 teams or individuals compete in NCAA championships. Eight FGCU programs have earned a top-25 national ranking in their respective sport - including women's basketball (No. 25, 2021-22), beach volleyball (No. 20, 2021) and both men's soccer (2018, 2019) and women's soccer (2018) as three of the most recent. In 2016-17, the Green and Blue posted a department-best sixth-place finish in the DI-AAA Learfield Directors' Cup and top-100 showing nationally, ahead of several Power-5 and FBS institutions. In 2018-19, the Eagles had an ASUN and state of Florida best seven teams earn the NCAA's Public Recognition Award for their Academic Progress Rate in their sport. FGCU also collectively earned a record 3.50 GPA in the classroom in the fall 2020 semester and has outperformed the general University undergraduate population for 24 consecutive semesters. The 2019 Fall, 2020 Spring, 2020 Fall, and 2021 Spring semesters each saw another milestone reached as all 15 programs achieved a 3.0-or-higher team GPA in each. The Eagles also served an all-time high 7,200 volunteer hours in 2017 - being recognized as one of two runners-up for the inaugural NACDA Community Service Award presented by the Fiesta Bowl. 
  
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